Chirps from Center Ice

I was a bit under the weather last night and the best remedy for this is sleep, so as soon as I got home from the 5-2 Penguins win over Bridgeport I hit the sack.

Anyway, I am up on Saturday morning feeling better so here we go:

If you missed it, Jesse Boulerice was suspended 10 games by the league for contact with referee Francis Charron. Eric P over at the Wilkes-Blog has video, which you can see over at Bombulie’s postgamer.

John Curry vs. Mikko Koskinen. Joel Martin actually led the Sound Tigers out, which led to early mass confusion.

First period: Tim Wallace scored when Koskinen was screened after a faceoff and Brett Sterling broke his seven game goal drought and scored on a breakaway. I had a piece on The Ticket on Thursday. The first period shots on goal differential was 12-3 in favor of the Penguins.

Second period: Bryan Lerg scored to make it 3-0, on another nifty backhander. He does this at least once a game. More often than not, he scores. Halfway through the game, the SOG were 17-6. Eric Tangradi would score to make it 4-0 then Bridgeport’s mini-comeback was on. Jean Bourbeau would score with 9.1 seconds left in the second to make it 4-1. It was a shothanded goal.

Third period: Referee Ryan Fraser really turned the game at this point into a puppet show, dishing out three consecutive power plays for the Sound Tigers, which would put WBS down on an extended 5 on 3. Mark Katic would score to make it 4-2. At this point, old WBS teams would play not to lose and would end up losing. Not here. Nick Johnson would score to make it 5-2. Wilkes-Barre really stepped on the accelerator after killing off the remainder of the penalties and just took it to the Sound Tigers.

Three Stars: Bryan Lerg, Tim Wallace, Brett Sterling.

As Bombulie mentioned his postgamer, Bridgeport was outgunned, dressing 10 forwards and 8 defensemen. Call ups really stung them tonight. Sound Tigers beat writer Michael Fornabaio live-blogged the game and heard Tom Grace call the game a “dismantling” by Wilkes-Barre.

Around the Division: Charlotte defeated Albany 4-2. Norfolk defeated Connecticut 5-2. From what I saw from my twitter feed from last night, they were close games to the end. Binghamton defeated Syracuse 6-4. In another close game, Hershey defeated Mantioba 4-3. Adirondack lost in a shootout to Abbotsford 4-3.

Standings: WBS has 58 points. The 11 point lead over Charlotte is maintained by them winning. The Checkers have 47 points. Norfolk has 46 points in third. Hershey has 45 points. It’s getting tight. It’s two points separating second and fourth. Binghamton has 38 points in 5th. Syracuse has 32 points for sixth. Albany has 29 points and Adirondack is four points back in last with 25 points.

Let’s Go Pens!